Mumbai Crime: Senior bank officials accuse RBI officer of 'extortion'

Dr Rabi Mishra has been accused of coercing senior bank officials to donate funds for a private cultural event

A senior RBI officer, custodian of classified information on the Indian economy, has been accused by some banking officials of influencing bankers to donate funds for a cultural event by indulging in 'diversion of funds'.

Dr Rabi N Mishra, Chief General Manager, Risk Monitoring department, RBI, has allegedly created various WhatsApp groups where he has added senior banking officials and forced them to donate funds for the NGO, Maharashtra-Odisha Welfare Association (MOWA). However, the funds were used for the recently-concluded Ama Utkarsha Odisha event in Navi Mumbai through illegal means, said financial activist Rajiv Sinha, who has written to the President of India, PMO, Finance Ministry, Central Vigilance Commission, and Supreme Court to take strict action against Dr Mishra.

'Violation of govt position'
The letter, dated February 12, 2019, read, "Dr Mishra has been associated with Bhagwan Panda, president of MOWA, in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, who had organised the cultural event and was collecting funds for it." "Dr Mishra has been influencing various government organisations and banks for the benefit of Panda, by pressurising bank officers to donate funds in the name of MOWA under the bank's CSR activity," the letter read.

"Panda is a controversial businessman with income from commissions and intermediaries in government liaisons. This is a serious violation of his official duties and the protocol of government bodies like the RBI. More violations can be found by investigating the activities of Dr Mishra and Panda," Sinha told mid-day.

Dr Mishra denies coercion
Dr Mishra has rubbished all charges saying, "It is a personal Whatsapp group of bankers in Mumbai from Odisha with the main objective being, undertaking socio-cultural initiatives. There was no coercion for funds." Sources said that Bipin Bihari Mishra, who was earlier grilled by the CBI in the Seashore chit fund scam, too was part of the cultural event. "I was not aware that Bipin Bihari Mishra was attending the event. The moment I saw him, I asked Panda to ask him to leave," said Dr Mishra.

Diversion of funds
"There is impersonation here. It is a textbook case of diversion of funds," the source said. Dr Mishra said that the event was to take place at very short notice, and hence "it was not possible to open a separate bank account for the cultural event. "We thus created a different bank account in the name of MOWA itself for the event. The contributions have been received in this account and thus commingling of funds is impossible. A proper Income and Expenditure Account will be made public once it is ready.

The allegations are not backed by any facts." [Commingling is a breach of trust in which funds held in care for a client are mixed with personal funds, making it difficult to determine which funds belong to whom] "Rs 36 lakh have so far been collected and more money is yet to come now that the event has concluded," said a senior banking official. RTI activist Anarjit Chauhan said, "This is called legal extortion. Let the vigilance department investigate the matter."

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